Constitutional review as a tool for maintaining formal, material and axiological coherence of legal system in time - example of the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic
Abstract
Constitutional review fulfils many roles related to its basic purpose, which is to ensure that the Constitution is the highest law of the land and all other laws, statutes, by-laws etc. are not in conflict with the Constitution. Constitutional complaints procedure further extends this review to the application of law by state officials and judges.
Most acclaimed role of the constitutional review is the protection of constitutionally entrenched rights of the individual and minority groups against the tyranny of the majority. Political scientists showed, however, that constitutional review also allows the politicians to shift the settlement of electorally unpopular legal problems on judges shed from direct democratic, in fact electoral, accountability or that it can be used to externalize government coalition conflicts.
In my paper I would like to develop another aspect of political studies related to the constitutional review's ability to disrupt the status quo and act as a majoritarian institution. The constitutional review, if it is not limited by a time limit within which the laws must be challenged before the (constitutional) court, also serves as incidental check on continuance of constitutionality of "older" laws and statutes in light of the evolving interpretation of constitution and fundamental rights contained therein.